Adding to a dynamic new wave of scholarship in Atlantic history, The Loyal Atlantic offers fresh interpretations of the key role played by Loyalism in shaping the early modern British Empire. This cohesive collection investigates how Loyalism and the empire were mutually constituted and reconstituted from the eighteenth century onward. Featuring contributions by authors from across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, The Loyal Atlantic brings Loyalism into a genuinely international focus.

Through cutting-edge archival research, The Loyal Atlantic contextualizes Loyalism within the larger history of the British Empire. It also details how, far from being a passive allegiance, Loyalism changed in unexpected and fascinating ways — especially in times of crisis. Most importantly, The Loyal Atlantic demonstrates that neither the conquest of Canada nor the American Revolution can be properly understood without assessing the meanings of Loyalism in the wider Atlantic world.

Jerry Bannister is an associate professor in the Department of History at Dalhousie University.Liam Riordan is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Maine.

PrefaceJerry Bannister and Liam Riordan

Chapter One: Loyalism and the British Atlantic, 1660-1840Jerry Bannister and Liam Riordan

Part I: Interpretive Frameworks of Allegiance within Imperial Transition

Chapter Two: The American Loyalist Problem of Identity in the Revolutionary Atlantic WorldKeith Mason

Chapter Nine: ‘Papineau-O’Connell Instruments’: Irish Loyalism and the Transnational Dimensions of the 1837 Rebellions in Upper and Lower CanadaAllan Blackstock

Afterword: Loyalist CosmopolitanismRobert M. Calhoon

‘Jerry Bannister and Liam Riordan should be proud of this edited volume. With this book they have greatly expanded historian’s knowledge of both loyalism and historiographical boundaries of loyalist studies.’

Aaron N. Colman, The Historian, vol 76:02:2014

‘Those interested in aboriginal, American, Atlantic, British, Canadian, Caribbean, imperial, revolutionary, and transnational history will benefit from this well-designed and thoughtful collection.’

Greg Brooking, Journal of Southern History, vol 79: November 2013

‘Jerry Bannister and Liam Riordan should be proud of this edited volume….The editors wanted their volume to reflect how “loyalism fundamentally shaped the British Atlantic world”. They have achieved their goal with resounding success. The Loyal Atlantic should open historiographical pathways previously unimagined.’

Aaron N. Coleman, The Historian vol 76:02:2014

‘This book wonderfully captures the complex and contested nature of British Atlantic loyalism in the Age of Revolution…An invaluable collection of essays.’